(HealthDayNews) -- Almost 80 percent of children with asthma show some allergic symptoms during their first year, but it isn't always possible to identify the allergens involved.
That's why Harvard Medical School and the University of Virginia Medical School worked together to find common factors in infants who had wheezing episodes in their first year of life.
As reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, young infants most likely to develop wheezing episodes are those born with a low birthweight, those who develop respiratory infections in their first year of life, and those whose mothers smoke.
The one risk factor that stood out for wheezing among young infants -- independent of one's health history or family income -- was cockroaches in the home.
